The optical space has undergone a revolution in the past few years, and today optical solutions garner much of the limelight for technical innovations. New solutions for Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) have arrived on the scene in rapid succession. Yet for every Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), Passive Optical Network (PON), or all-optical start-up, there are solutions that build on existing legacy SONET networks, promising more flexibility and ease of use for carriers and enterprise managers. Will these next-generation SONET solutions be widely adopted, or are they simply stopgap solutions in an inevitable migration to a data-only world?